Static fatigue of optical fibers in bending.

A two-point bending technique for making static fatigue measurements on optical fibers is described which allows large quantities of data to be rapidly and conveniently gathered. Statistical analysis is used to compare the times to failure of the method with those of the commonly used mandrel and tensile methods. Direct experimental comparison of the two-point bend and tensile methods show that while the times to failure are generally longer for two-point bend, the essential fatigue behavior is identical for the two methods.